Month: March 2015

I am thrilled with the way she turned out but the original sketch in Pentel brush was awful so I decided to whip out the Daniel Smith watercolor ground and paint over her and redraw. I redrew her with the Pentel brush pen. Oh what a mistake that was. It wasn’t waterproof and kept leaking on my sketch. Oops.

I patiently blotted the leaking ink over and over as it ran with a clean folded paper towel. I love brawny the paper towel that keeps on giving. I thought the painting might be cursed but no all of a sudden she was looking great. The smudgy ink lent an air of mystery or at least interst to the watercolor I think.

I actually traced the head on notebook paper and used it as a pattern to cut out the background accounting book paper to glue over the de artrementis document brown ink I decided I didn’t like with the black. I painted over it with a buff gouache. I threw the pattern in the trash but will get it out and take a photo so you can see what I did.

The black is a mix of DS alizarin red and indigo. Makes a great blue black. Skin is DS Quin coral and yellow ochre. Shadows are burnt sienna Quin sienna and cerulean.

All of these were drawn last week at Dr Sketchys. An about ten drawings that note. Dr Sketchys is always the Kay Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at Chat Noir at 8th and Ellis in downtown Augusta Ga. But it is a worldwide movement. You can find a group near you or start one!!!

All sketches are down with Pentel brush pen Pentel color brush pens and Tombow markers.

Cosmo detail posted earlier today on IG. A great model. Interesting poses. And he held them. This was a ten minute pose.

Cosmo the whole guy!! His boots were too big and flipped on his feet which made them hard to draw.

Cosmo – oops he didn’t need his foot!! A lot of red lights on him.

Cosmo is a fire water. This is actually two poses. He ate fire first. Then he loaded putting it out.

And poor Cosmo was embarrassed by this pose.

The last pose of the night. I think the elephant was funny. Others not so much. And that’s a wrap. Something new tomorrow.

But first. I did a little urban sketching yesterday. A store downtown has some wild Easter hats. The purple one is the talk of the town. A huge bow and rhinestones. What else could a girl want?! Trying to get some of my friends to meet to try them on. So far no takers. Pentel brush pen and watercolor in my Stillman and Birn zeta. Greys made with cerulean and yellow ochre or Quin sienna and cobalt.

My brush pen started leaking I mean pouring after I drew this. So I paused at a new u table to clean up my hands and the pen. Reseat the cartridge. All the time two large

Groups of ladies walked by bound for Crosbys all in a twitters giggly bunch. Paused in front of the purple hat phong and aging before going into shop for their special Easter bonnet. I really enjoyed evesdropping on them. They were so enthralled in their conquests. The things you learn when you go sketching.

I used a lot of Quinacridones on this. Quin Coral magenta and sienna. The purple hat is Quin magenta and cobalt or ultramarine. The jillion rhinestone are white gouache.

Erica is a lovely young lady. Things actually went fairly smoothly today. The colors I used were DS Quin Coral which makes beautiful skin, cerulean, burnt sienna ultramarine blue cobalt and yellow ochre. And that’s it. Six colors!!

Step 1 – coral and yellow ochre over the face and upper torso. Then I added burnt sienna and cerulean in the shadows. I dipped the brush in water and shook the it out. Then I dipped it in the color I was using. I usually applied burnt sienna first trying not to leave hard edges.

The shadow colors were put on individually and allowed to mingle wet on wet.

I did all this painting pretty quickly in less than ten minutes. She was at this point at the first 30 minute break.

I then used the same colors on her legs.

This is what she looked like when I brought her home. Erica is tall and quite slim but I think I got her TOOO slim. What to do?!

This is as she is now. I realized her neck was too short leaving the shoulder on the right side of the neck too high aka too long. I shortened it about 1/4 inch and now her torso does not look so long. I also realized she had too much hair on top of her head.

Her eyes were not centered in her head. Oops!! So I shave a bit off with my scrubber aka my old grumbacher hog bristle filbert. Much better.

What else needs correction. That forehead is too high and the legs are I think too long but I will probably only fix the forehead.

I seem to enjoy painting the furniture the quilt and the legs best. Less demands. I put on wet color with abandon and let the colors flow and mingle.

The greys

The grey is made with cobalt and burnt sienna. Makes a lovely grey. I used it on the floor and the quilt.

The darks are done with ultramarine blue and burnt umber. That combo was used for the hair and the chair. It can make almost black.

Background cerulean and yellow ochre. Really like the way it turned out. Not too much covered. Lots of white.

All sable paint brushes Raphael #8 & 2 and one of my favorite brushes my Isabey #6. I would have used my #2 but darn I left it at home. It would have been the perfect brush for the details on her face. They make such lovely points.

Her mouth was done with burnt umber with a tiny bit of cerulean added not mixed but dabbed in. Same thing under her lip. I did go back into the eye socket area with those two colors to define the eyes a bit. The head is not two inches long so not a lot of room for detail.

Dr Sketchys is the last Wednesday of each month at the Chat Noir at 7 pm. Come on down and join the fun!!

Cosmo C. Margaret McCarthy Hunt Pen and ink wash

Dr Sketchys is the best sketching fun in Augusta. Fast sketching. 2-20 minute poses. Off the wall different models who are actually burlesque, circus performers or even strippers. You never know what their day job is but you can bet they are not waiting tables at Waffle House tables at nights. Contests for tickets to Chat Noir performances and sometimes a drink or two. We find that a martini or a bourbon and coke loosens up the drawing fun!

This is a presketch. He was trying out poses and Ann Delore and I decided to limber up our pens and chalk. Most of these were done with the Pentel brush pen, Pentel color brush pens, Tombow markers and some Wink of Stella pens(glitter pens).

Cosmo C. Margaret McCarthy Hunt Pen and ink wash

Another five minute sketch. Oops I cut off his legs. HOW did I manage to get all of him in the one minute drawing previous to this and cut his legs off in the five minute one?!

Triple Hats

Cosmo C. Margaret McCarthy Hunt Pen and ink wash

My favorite so I posted it again. He could stare holes they you with his eyes.

Cosmo C. Margaret McCarthy Hunt Pen and ink wash

Notice anything funny about this one?! His legs are too short I think. I need to measure to see if he fits within 7.5 heads length. I think he’s 6.5 heads. Otherwise I love this sketch.

Ann and I started laughing at some point because we never could quite get all of him on the page. Maybe it was that Appltini?!

More Dr Sketchys tomorrow or maybe that great window of easter hats I sketches downtown today. Unbelievable hats. You will swoon. NOT!!

Looking at my sketchbook a friend pointed out to me today that I must really be into my breakfasts. Of course I should have retorted that she was the one who got me into going out for breakfast. She’s been doing it for years before I met her. Now that we have both left the teaching profession we meet once or twice a week for breakfast and then I run errands in town. If I stay home I get busy and put the errands off. Not good when it’s a Target bill that I pay off every month or time to pay for the cell phone.

My favorite breakfast is the breakfast bowl at the inner bean a local cafe run by two moms Donna and Ann. Keeps them skinny!! 😃 Back to the bowl. I think it’s pretty healthy. Be healthier if I left out the bacon but is 60% of the wheat is drenched in roundup before we eat it might as well enjoy our bacon. Much tastier than wheat.

Last nite was Dr Sketchys. Our favorite art event of the month. Last night was stellar. I won a contest twice. Here’s one of the sketches.

This is Cosmo a burlesque performer in a five minute pose. Cosmo could hold a pose like the Rock of Gibraltar. Pentel brush pen in my strathmore mixed media journal. And yes he has three hats on his head!!

Something else I did yesterday that was terrific fun while waiting for my friend Ruth at Earthfare. I drew the customers as they went in and out of the store. Just gesture sketches but SuPeR fun.

Art before lunch. Very fast sketch from a distance. Think I was more into drawing the fountain than the couple who were having the best conversation outside at the inner bean while smoking and enjoying the weather.

This was drawn with my Pentel brush pen. Lettering was done with my Lamy Vista fine nib. The painting was done mostly with watercolor and with some gouache.

I had a lot of trouble painting the flesh tones. The best thing I finally discovered while painting this was how to make flesh using gouache. I tried the way I mix it with watercolor. Light yellow and a clear red. Not good when combined with white.

Then I tried white with a tiny bit of English red and bingo. Great flesh color!! Who knew?! I painted the skin before I went to book club and while I was there I studied the other ladies’ skin tones. Studying always helps. Then I came home and repainted them. Thank goodness.

Random success!👏I have to say I think the girl is a little skinny and the arm too short but oh well. It’s done and I am turning the page!!

Sorry not to post this sooner but I have been drawing too much. And have too many pages to post. I did draw my breakfast this morning too but yet to paint it. Tomorrow or after I go for a walk tonite. I seem to like to paint at nite.

This was inspired by Danny Gregory’s blog post recently of his breakfast. I am not likey to make a habit of drawing before breakfast. I don’t like cold eggs. Grits however and tea take a while to cool down!

This was done with my Pentel brush pen. Then I journaled on it a bit. And finally I painted it with Schminke gouache. The background color is watered down gouache. The grey on the cup was made with indigo and white. The mushrooms were painted with a brown made from yellow, red and indigo lightened with white.

My son found Tom as a tiny stray in the wheel well of a neighbors boat trailer. When he brought him home you could hold him on your palm of one hand. Now he’s a sleek kitty with fur that glows like fire when he sits in the sun light.

He also yowls at me to go in or out. In this painting he wanted out. He was getting irritated because I made him wait while I drew him.

I drew him with one of my Noodler flex nibs loaded with Drartremis brown document ink. Painted him with gouache in my stillman and Birn zeta with mostly white, Indian yellow, and English red with bits of indigo in the shadows.

My mother is an avid gardener whose every finger is green. This is based on her spring garden in Asheville NC.

Yuchikiokee Festival

Quick sketch adding onto the crowd as they walked by yesterday and stood for a few minutes before the big show at Yuchikiokee Festival in Evans Ga. Sadly day two got rained out. I filled in the people in the foreground first. The lady in the middle was a walk off before I drew her legs. Oops. That happens. Then I filled in the background.